Coinage metal

[Sneha K]

How can we extrapolate the sources of the coinage metals from the presence of trace elements? Is it possible to determine/locate the mines/ores by performing XRF techniques on coins? This is particularly in the context of copper coins of the early medieval period of Kashmir. The trace elements in Kashmir's early medieval coppers were chiefly tin, lead, zinc, iron and silver. Could the copious copper coinage of Kashmir, especially the Toramanas, be used as trade currency since they are also found in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Pakistan. It would be interesting to know if the coinage metals of the Toramana and later Hindu kings of Kashmir were derived in trade and/or locally mined. It'll be interesting to understand if collectors and scholars tread on this particular pathway of research.
Thanks!

[SC]

This very interesting question has been looked at for years.  However, there has been very little "success". 

The question is not as easy as it seems.  Some problems include the fact that much coinage was struck from recycled metals.  This obviously entirely mixes up the source material.

Another problem is that we don't have samples of the actual metal that was mined at the time in order to ensure the study base.  It can't always be assumed that the metal mined 2000 years ago has the same trace elements as the metal still found at the same site today.  It may have varied from vein to vein, or depth to depth.

For more on this see various articles in the journal Archaeometry.

For example, "Coins, artefacts and isotopes-archaeometallurgy and Archaeometry"

or other articles like:

"The Application of Trace Element and Isotopic Analyses to the Study of Celtic Gold Coins and their Metal Sources."

and

"The Determination of Trace Elements in Ancient Silver Objects by Thermal Neutron Activation Analysis"

etc.

SC